From House to Home and Everything In Between

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Why I Will Not Buy My Mattress From Macy's - An Epic Novel

We went and tried a bunch of mattresses at a bunch of different stores. After an hour, I just wanted it to be over. It was just the beginning.

We ended up at Macy's and found the perfect mattress for us.

It was on a super-duper-never-before-never-again-oh-MY-GOSH sale.

We were debating Queen vs. King and they place orders on certain days so the sales girl was going to call us on Thursday.

Friday I realized we had received no call on Thursday, but remembered her saying she would be out Friday and Saturday. I assured myself she would call on whichever day she returned to work.

Then, I did the unthinkable: I forgot about it. I convinced myself the sale was important enough to them that we would be called. Sure, I called the number printed on the card for the furniture department, but no matter how I called I got a computer system asking me to input my receipt number or rate delivery. I tried the cell phone number which had been handwritten on the card by the sales associate. Never did get a person either way.

Eventually, a couple of weeks after our initial contact, I called the store, was routed through the computer, and just kept trying different things to get a human. (I've since learned of 'new, improved' ways to reach a human in these situations, but they involve dropping rather loud F-bombs. Erica at No Sleep 'Til College figured it out, somehow.) When I finally got a human at a call center nowhere near the store they asked if they could put me on hold for a 'few minutes' and that is precisely what they did - 5 minutes on the phone later an employee at my local store was on the line. His name might have been Mr.DoNotCare, because he did not. I asked about the mattress, he said they didn't sell that model any more and he didn't have any mattresses to sell me for a week. In a week they would have mattresses in again. He told me I would need to come back in to the store and try out the news ones to see which one I liked. Deflated might be the perfect word to describe how I felt.

I sat for a few minutes, and gathered up my thoughts. I called back and asked for a store manager. When Molly answered the phone my full intention was to inform management of the lack of follow up. I also thought they should know that phone skills would be helpful for the guy who didn't care at all about my great deal being gone. At least he could have offered an "I'm so sorry that happened." Seriously, what would that have cost him? It could have done wonders for good will. I wanted to make sure Macy's knew why they failed to make that sale. Molly was kind and caring, and listened to me. She was sorry this had happened. Frankly, nobody was as sorry as me. She offered to see if the mattress could still be obtained somehow. Then she did the truly unexpected and said she would sell it to me for the price I had been given before! Then she said if she couldn't get that mattress she would sell me the comparable new mattress at that price! It was totally unexpected and I was elated. I thanked her, she told me she would hand this matter off to the appropriate person and I should be expecting a call. Way to go above and beyond. Way to go, Macy's!

Oh, if only I could say that I got the call in a day or two, and it all ended well. Alas, I can not.

In a day or two I got a voice mail. I promptly returned the call. I spoke with who turned out to be Mr.ReallyDoNotCare. He informed me they would have new mattresses set up tomorrow morning, that there were at least a couple in the price range I was willing to spend, and I could come in and look at them tomorrow. I questioned him over the "In my price range" and he informed me Molly had no business making the kind of offer she made to me, that she didn't know anything about the furniture part of the store, and that maybe, just maybe, and he wanted to make sure I didn't take this as a promise or anything, if I wasn't happy with something in the price range I had planned to spend he may be able to bump me up to the next mattress. Now, the mattress we were planning to buy was a Beautyrest Elite Eminence. It usually went on sale for $1999 in Queen, but this super sale we found was for $1297. So a $1300 mattress was no way going to fit the bill. And why would I give Macy's my business on a full price mattress after they just lost me the mattress of my dreams? Deflated pretty much fits the feeling again. And I'm starting to feel a bit like a ping-pong ball.

Not satisfied with the answers I got from Mr.ReallyDoNotCare I decided to call and ask to speak to Molly again. I hate to bother people with my issues, but I wanted her to tell me if her offer did or did not stand. I did not reach Molly, but Manager#2 (they call them 'executives' and if you say manager they are certain to correct you) who assured me Molly would return my call tomorrow. Molly did not call. I am not sure if she got the message or not.

I finally called Molly myself. I told her about the totally different story I got from MrReallyDoNotCare. After being a bit school-marmish and chastising with me at one point by saying, in a really pissy tone "Well I did not say I would give you any bed in the whole store for that price. That's not what you are expecting, is it?" I assured her it was not. Her tone went back to the way it had been in our previous converstaions. She asssured me the offer was for the bed which replaced the one I wanted. (I am obviously still trying to forgive her for speaking to me like I was her employee, pupil, or child, but she was mostly nice) Then I explain that I don't know how I am going to be able to actually buy the bed I want at the offer she made since they sales guy was refusing to do it. She said "I don't know either, since you refuse to work with any of my sales staff. I don't have anyone else you can work with" Huh? I told her I prefer not to work with the rude dudes, but the original sales girl was very nice. It's just that she had been on vacation while I was trying to get this all worked out, and would not be back until the next week. She was obviously not understanding what I was saying. I told her I never said I did not want to work with the sales girl, just that I was willing to work with someone else if I had to in order to buy the mattress I wanted. By now I was tired of waiting and my loyalty to her had waned since she forgot about me to the extent that I now had to go through all of this. We agreed that when the sales girl was back she would call me and I would seal the deal with her. Molly also let me know that she had brought the store manager into the loop on this because I had been put through so much. Once again, I leave a call with Molly feeling like I have a resolution. Even if she did manage to insult me a couple of times during the call, I'm still optimistic.

I'm an idiot. A real dolt. A sucker's sucker.

Because the sales girl called and we set it all up. My husband had been out of town and when he got back we made another trip to Macy's. Where the sales girl showed us the mattress the store manager told her to offer us. Which was not at all as nice as the Elite Eminence we were going to buy originally. It was a definite downgrade. While she was helping some other customers I said to my husband "This is nowhere near the kind of mattress we were going to buy" and he agreed. We went to the mattress which was now residing where the Eminence used to be. Uh-huh, this is the one. When the sales girl came back we simply asked her if the one she was offering was the one replacing the one we were going to buy. She told us it wasn't. She told us the one we were now standing by was the one which replaced the Eminence, but that the Eminence had been such a great deal, and it was never that kind of deal, and she didn't know how it had been such a great deal... So the store manager had decided we should have the lower-end. And we're not talking about a difference in ticking, you can feel a huge different between the Hollingsworth and the Sanderling. And the Sanderling sure isn't up to par with the Eminence. No problem, for $600 more we can just buy the Hollingsworth.

So I stood in Macy's both so frustrated I felt like I might cry and furious. The sales girl promised me Molly would call me tomorrow. Molly never called. (again)

And here's the kick in the pants which adds (even more) insult to injury:

My daughter works at this Macy's. My other daughter worked at this Macy's while she was in college. When we first went to look at mattresses the sales girl asked if we wanted to open a Macy's charge and we told her we would not open one, but if we did it would have to be with our daughter, who worked in the store as well. She asked us if our daughter still lives at home. She does. So she told us we could use her discount, making the bed an even better deal. I relayed this to Molly the first time I spoke with her. Then manager#2 heard it from me as well.

After my second visit to Macy's,when we left very disappointed, the store manager called my daughter into his office. He told her it was against policy to use her discount for us to buy things and she could be fired if we did. There was a reason why we had never used the discounts through the girls before: we didn't know we could. The sales girl was the one who said it was okay. And I questioned her about it that first day. I made sure it didn't go against store policy. An additional $240 is not worth losing your integrity, and especially not worth losing your job! So here was my daughter being called into the office and being given the numbers for the mattresses to bring to us.

Why did he call her instead of me? I am the customer. I wasn't having my daughter involved throughout the process. I thought it was terribly rude of him to ignore me and put my daughter on the spot. It sure as heck wasn't her idea. Any of it. I get letting her know not to share her discount, if he thought he had to do it I think there were better ways of doing it. But the rest is inexcusable.

So now I'm pissed. Not ony did Macy's treat me like a ping pong ball for two weeks while I slept on my old lumpy mattress, but now they are not honoring the offer they extended to me, and they are sending messages through my daughter instead of dealing with me? Rude, unprofessional, and just plain bad business.

I called the store again. I asked for a manager again. I got the Assistant Store Manager. He told me he was actually aware of the situation and that the store manager had asked the sales staff, who all agreed the mattress he offered was the replacement to my Eminence. I know this wasn't true because the day before the sales girl told me otherwise when we asked her. Now I understand why she hemmed and hawed about it. I went around with this guy on the phone a little to make sure I had a clear understanding of the situation. I did. I also informed him I was not pleased with the fact that Molly never called me like I was told she would, and I was even less pleased with the store manager dealing with my daughter instead of with me, the customer. In the end he asked if the information he had given me had been helpful. I told him it wasn't helpful, but at least it was clear. We covered how the discount wasn't applicable, and I told him I understand that, how we had never used it in all these years, and how we were told by the sales girl it was totally on the up-and-up. We certainly had mentioned it to each manager we spoke with and were not trying to hide it. He said we she could use her discount if she was making a gift to us. I told him my young daughter would certainly not be gifting me our mattress set. Later in the call he started to tell me that if my daughter were to buy this as a gift for us... and I interrupted him because dangit I already told him no. So I told him again that my young daughter would not be buying us an expensive mattress set as a gift and we would not be pretending she was. That's not how we operate in our house. Give us a deal or don't. But don't expect us to lie to get one.

Macy's might not honor their offers, but over here at our house we are keeping our integrity, thankyouverymuch. (What is wrong with this world?)

I never got a call from Molly. I never got a call from the store manager.

Why would I buy a mattress from Macy's now? To honor them for insulting us? To honor them for not honoring the offer they extended to me? Yeah, I don't think so.

My family has been following the abbreviated facebook version of this and two of them were buying mattresses. Both had planned to shop Macy's. Both went elsewhere.

Treat a customer good and they will tell their friends.

Treat a customer bad and they will tell everyone.

So here I am, telling everyone.

Seriously, what would you do? Do you have any good recommendations? Where did you buy your mattress? How was your experience?

Just a little follow-up for anyone who may read this from this point on:

This was read by someone higher up at Macy's. I spoke with him at length about things. I did not want to give him more details because my daughter does work there happen. But you also know they do happen. It was not a chance I was willing to take.

I did try to be as helpful as I could to make him understand the dire situation with the phone system and how they were likely losing pretty much any customer who tried to call their furniture department. He said changes were to follow with the phone system.

He offered to send me a gift card. I thought it over and let him know I would accept the gift card and gave him my address. That was many months ago.

This will come as no surprise to anyone but me, right? You already know what I'm going to say, don't you?

I never received a gift card.

However, we did buy a new mattress from GoToMattress online. They were very helpful on all fronts and I got my mattress faster than I would have if I had ordered it at the store. The price? Way better than anywhere else. They even took away the old mattress set at no charge.